Science versus Public Relations
Science versus Spin
Cigarettes are not addictive & do not cause cancer
according to the scientists paid off by Big Tobacco
Creation Scientists claim that Evolution is not a fact but merely an opinion
of anti-Christian scientists
or that the media should give equal time to Holocaust deniers along with those who accept the Holocaust as a fact of history -
& if so then Global Warming is a liberal /leftist plot
Scientists for sale to the highest bidder ie Big Oil & Big Coal versus real scientists -
Whistle blowers & Personal Integrity
This is part one. The rest of the documentary is available on CBC website & also at YouTube
The Denial Machine CBC Fifth Estate
The documentary shows how fossil fuel corporations have kept the global warming debate alive long after most scientists believed that global warming was real and had potentially catastrophic consequences. It shows that companies such as Exxon Mobil are working with top public relations firms and using many of the same tactics and personnel as those employed by Phillip Morris and RJ Reynolds to dispute the cigarette-cancer link in the 1990s. Exxon Mobil sought out those willing to question the science behind climate change, providing funding for some of them, their organizations and their studies.
The Denial Machine also explores how the arguments supported by oil companies were adopted by policymakers in both Canada and the US and helped form government policy.
What are we to conclude when we see some scientists selling their services for the right amount of money & will interpret data to suit the needs of their employers . If the employer is Exxon or the Bush Or Harper Regimes & their true believers then when it comes to Global Warming & the damage being done to the environment by co2 emissions etc. if the employers asks them to deny the known scientific facts just so they can make some big bucks.
Meanwhile Public Relations firms & Ad Agencies advice Businesses & government on how to sell what in fact are lies & deceptions & obfuscations all in order to promote rapacious capitalism & neoconservativism -
and how can those who believe in Global Warming who do not have the money & resources & the power of the Neocon ideologues who control the American government & the Canadian government get their message out -
As the documentary points out scientists who work for the Bush Regime or the Harper Regime are threatened with unemployment & possibly disgrace if they dare disagree with the accepted views of either government.
Part of the problem which I have mentioned before is this notion that a government employee's loyalty is to the Government in power & its ideology rather than to the truth & to the public. If an individual is working in a government department & knows of wrongdoing whether legal or moral that is unethical then the employee who works for the country or province or state & for the people they owe it to the people to speak out - first by raising concerns along the chain of command & if ignored to speak out anonymously to thereby become " Whistle Blowers"- who may have to go public quite openly & no longer anonymously - they contact the media or others to let the truth be known-
To some including this writer see Whistle Blowers as heroes where as Neocons & others see " Whistle Blowers " as despicable disloyal traitors -
But as I say a government employee's first loyalty is to the country & the people & that an employer whether the government at whatever level or a corporation asks them to do what is illegal or appears to be unethical then they must reveal this to the public in whatever way they can -
Far too many in our society hide behind the old standby that " they were merely following orders " & besides they couldn't speak up because it might jeopardize their job & their income- But what price should one place on personal integrity -
Its like watching Condoleeza Rice once again lying about Mahar Arar's case but then again her loyalty is not to " truth " " justice " or "moral concerns" or " ethics " or " personal integrity "-
(But she is not alone in this in the Bush administration as there are many examples one can mention in the Bush Regime from Scooter Libby , to Dick Cheney & Rumsfeld & Karl Rove & Bush's buddy " Brownie " of Katrina fame or General Petraeus, Colin Powell etc. as for our Prime Minister he is after all just a Bush clone or puppet who wishes to take our country down the same dark path where might is right & the Elite & Big Business are all that matters )-
Like all those who now infest our governments their loyalty is to the present neocon agenda & to Chancellor Bush or in our country to Chancellor Harper . Condoleeza Rice like Margaret Thatcher & Indira Ghandi & Imelda Marcos - is also proof that women in power are no different than men in power - they will protect their positions & their jobs at any cost - & they too have misplaced loyalties but I guess this is what Universities teach most of their students these days - that they must show absolute loyalty to their employers & that justice, truth , ethics , morals & integrity are just out-dated notions which will not work in a world of Real Politic -
For instance this way of looking at the world means that anything from , lying , kidnapping, warrant-less surveillance to torture or whatever etc. is right if one can make it legal & dot the is & cross the ts.
This should raise an alarm among scientists , research facilities & universities for they are producing some scientists who have no ethical qualms about saying the opposite of what is true for the right amount of money- maybe in order to receive a degree in science students should also take a few courses on ethics & truth telling & that this is an important part of being a real scientists in which one follows the facts to whatever the conclusions are even if it goes against one's personal beliefs or one's ideology & that this is a reflection on one's personal integrity but don't hold your breath since in our materialistic society where the main motive is making a lot of money & doing what is in one's own self-interest & that lofty notions like truth & such are seen as pointless & useless values - knowledge is therefore for sale since it is all relative anyway -
So is this more of what we call Superiour Western Values - that doing the right thing ie refusing to obey orders or being a Whistle Blower is not as important as how much money one can make & keeping one's job & being loyal to your boss no matter what -
even if your boss is J. R. Ewing for those who remember Dallas but now his values are the values of our whole society -
take care,
GORD.
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